1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information communication system which responds to requests from an information communication terminal for example, and provides advertisement information when performing data communication service such as facsimile communication, electronic mail communication, information providing service, and so forth.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the widespread use of portable wireless communication terminals such as PHS terminals in Japan and increased speed of data transmission using such portable wireless communication terminals has brought attention to wireless data communication services which facilitate wireless communication of various types of data such as text data and image data, in addition to voice data.
For example, in the case of using a PHS terminal, data communication can be made at transfer speeds of 32 kbit/second, which is comparable to the 28.8 kbit/second or 33.6 kbit/second transfer speeds for analog telephone lines using a modem. Thus, an environment is falling into place in which exchange of electronic mail, facsimile communication, etc., can be performed outdoors using portable wireless communication terminals.
Now, there are requests for allowing data communication service such as facsimile communication, electronic mail communication, information providing service, and so forth, at as low a cost as possible. Particularly, regarding users of portable wireless communication terminals who use data communication services via wireless communication lines, the line usage fees for using the portable wireless communication terminals are higher than generally used public lines using telephone cables, and accordingly, there is a strong desire to have various types of data communication services at minimal fees.
Accordingly, a system can be conceived in which advertisements for corporations or products are attached to the data communication services. Thus, data communication services can be provided at low costs by providing advertisement information to the user of the information communication terminal, charging advertisement fees from the advertiser, and using these fees to cover the costs necessary for providing the data communication services.
However, there is a desire from the advertisers paying the advertising fees, the provide the advertisements in an effective manner. For example, providing advertisements for golfing goods only to golfers is an example of providing advertisements specialized for that consumer segment, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the advertisements.
Advertisement information is attached to main information provided by the data communication service and provided to the information communication terminal, so that both the main information and advertisement information are displayed on the display screen of the information communication terminal.
Such usage of data communication services is highly advantageous, since not only can the user of the information communication terminal receiving data communication services with advertisement have data communication services at low costs, but also can obtain necessary information from the advertisement, e.g., information regarding a product which the user is contemplating purchasing.
However, since both the main information and advertisement information are displayed on the display screen of the information communication terminal, the display space for the main information is reduced by the amount of space taken up by the advertisement information, and in the event that there is a great amount of main information, the advertisement information may interfere with viewing of the main information. Particularly, regarding portable wireless communication terminals, the portability thereof requires reduction in size and weight, meaning that the size of the display screen is limited, and hence, there is a great possibility that displaying of the advertisement information may interfere with viewing of the main information.
In this way, while not a constant problem, displaying of the advertisement information may interfere with viewing of the main information in the event that there is a great amount of main information or in cases where the user desires to carefully view only the main information.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information communication system whereby advertisement information provided to users of information communication terminals using data communication services can be provided in a more effective manner.
According to the information communication system of the present invention, advertising information with the user of the information communication terminal making the request as the object thereof is attached to information being provided according to the request from the information communication terminal, by means of the information providing means of the server device, and thus the information is provided to the information communication terminal making the request.
In other words, the user information storing means of the server device has stored therein various types of information about the each of the users of the information communication terminals, such as user identification information for identifying the users, the name, age, sex, and so forth of the users, etc.
Then, the user information relating to the user is referred to based on identification information of the user of the information communication terminal included in the request information from the information communication terminal, and in the event that the user is an object of providing the advertisement information, i.e., in the event that the user meets the criteria specified by the advertiser who is the provider of the advertisement, this advertisement information is provided to the information communication terminal which has sent a request.
For example, in the event that the criteria specified by the advertiser is to provide advertisement information A only to men over 30 years of age, the advertisement information A is provided only in the event that the user of the information communication terminal meets the criteria specified by the advertiser, based on the user information in the user information storing means.
Accordingly, the advertiser can target the users of the information communication terminal to provide advertisements to, based on the user information in the user information storing means, and so advertisement information can be provided in an effective manner, unlike providing advertisement to random information communication terminals.
According to this information communication system, the information communication terminal is comprised of a portable terminal with wireless communication functions. Accordingly, the user can receive pertinent provision of service from arbitrary locations, away from the office or home.
At the server device, the request from the information communication terminal is received, and advertisements are attached to the information to be provided to the information communication terminal and sent thereto in the event that the request has information indicating permission of attaching the advertisement.
Advertisements are not attached to the information to be provided to the information communication terminal in the event that the request has information indicating non-permission of attaching the advertisement. Thus, the user of the information communication terminal can select whether or not to permit attachment of advertisements to the information to be provided from the server device.
Accordingly, in the event that there will be no problem in viewing the information requested from the server device even if there is an advertisement attached thereto, the use can select to have information provided with an advertisement attached thereto, and thus take advantage of inexpensive information providing service by means of discounts to the charges for receiving the information or discounts to the line usage fees, and so forth. On the other hand, in the event that the user of the information communication terminal is receiving important information, the user can receive information without advertisements if he/she desires to have information without advertisement even if it means that there are not discounts to the charges for receiving the information or discounts to the line usage fees.